How Many Grafts/ Hairs Will I Need?

In fact, it is not fair to charge same amount from a person with only a receding hairline and a person with a receding hairline and a balding crown. Due to this reason many hair transplant surgeons charge per graft. So, the patient pays as much as is required to cover the baldness.

In such a setting where surgeon charges by grafts, surgeon calculates how many grafts you will require to conceal your baldness and then tells you how much you will have to pay.

How Many Grafts/Hairs Will I Need?

You cannot determine an exact number of hair grafts without the surgeon’s assistance. However, there is a method that can give you a rough estimate. It is described in some hair transplant textbooks also.

The method assumes that a person who is level NW7 (severely bald) has 200 square centimeters of bald area to be filled with hair grafts. It is supposed that the person would require 1000 grafts for each Norwood level. It means level NW7 would need 7000 grafts and 35 grafts per square centimeter (7000/200=35). Now calculate how much bald area you have to cover.

· Take a transparent paper with the line markings of square centimeters.

· Place the graph paper over your head and mark the area(s) where you need to regrow hear.

· Count number of squares that fall in the marked area.

· Multiply it with 35.

The resulting number shows you the number of grafts that you would need to cover your bald area(s).

Why I cannot make an exact estimate

This method gives a rough estimate. A more exact estimate will most likely be a variation of this estimate because not all heads are of same size. While some NW7 have 200 square centimeters of bald area, some have up to 300, yet a few may have 170.

Your hair transplant surgeon is the right person to make a more exact estimate for the number of grafts that you would need. The surgeon takes into account multiple factors and then decides carefully. Following are the factors that drive the estimate and are not considered in the above mentioned method.

· Your goals (how much density you want to achieve in the bald patch)

· Color of your hair and scalp (having dark hair and dark colored scalp means your scalp will not be visible even with lesser number of hairs so, you would need lesser hair grafts)

· Texture of your hair (wavy and curly hair does not need large number of hair grafts. Hairs appear dense with lesser number of grafts)

· The diameter of hair shafts (for donor hair supply)

· The size and shape of your scalp

You can make a rough estimate of needed grafts yourself. However, for an accurate estimate you always need a hair transplant surgeon. Wish you good luck for your hair transplant!